Column
by
Archbishop John G. Vlazny
|
Archbishop's
Column by Archbishop John G. Vlazny |
Archbishop’s Column
7/4/03
This year’s spring meeting of the American
bishops wasn’t quite the
spectacle we experienced in Dallas last
year, at least not in the meeting
room. But media reports on TV and in the
newspapers seemed to indicate
that many of the reporters were expecting
Dallas II, albeit in a much more
clandestine fashion.
Prior to the meeting, the Oregonian reported
in a Saturday headline,
“After last year’s searing hearings, bishops
will meet in closed sessions.”
By now, most of our fellow citizens know
that last spring the American
bishops were being pressured to come up
with a “quick fix” to the terrible
scandal of child sexual abuse by clergy
in our Catholic community. It was
possibly the worst crisis in the history
of the church in our country.
Since then, Catholic communities across
this land have taken significant
strides to implement measures that remove
offending clergy, to reach out
to victims of these terrible crimes and
to restore the trust and
confidence of both our people and our
priests.
During the past 12 months, a National Review
Board and an Office for Child
and Youth Protection were both established
by the bishops’ conference.
Gov. Frank Keating’s resignation as chair
of the National Review Board
prior to the June gathering in St. Louis
was certainly not helpful.
Questions raised by some bishops about
a survey being conducted by the
National Review Board were unacceptable
to him. Fortunately, the other
members of the board have persevered in
the task, and the questions have
been resolved.
During this spring’s bishops’ meeting,
unlike last year’s, the agenda
touched upon a variety of issues that
relate to our episcopal ministry.
For a number of years now, we have been
preparing new national directories
for the formation, ministry and life of
permanent deacons and also for
catechesis. These documents were at last
up for vote, delayed in their
development because of the attention we
have been giving to the sexual
abuse crisis. In addition, other committees
in our conference have been
encouraging studies about lay ministry,
the collaboration of women and
clergy, agricultural issues and the theology
of mission. Even in the midst
of scandal, life goes on. If health care
workers were embroiled in a
controversy like ours, we would certainly
expect them to continue to care
for patients. Similarly, the church, now
as always, carries out its
mission in the midst of our present storms.
On the last day of the meeting, I took
a walk early in the morning through
the streets of St. Louis. The Chicago
Tribune is for sale on many street
corners in downtown St. Louis. That day,
I noticed this headline, “Scandal
Shadows Bishops,” on the front page, with
a color picture of Cardinal
George, head buried in his hands, seemingly
deeply troubled about the
crisis. In fact, Cardinal George was upbeat,
positive, focused and
interested in a variety of matters throughout
our sessions.
What was the newspaper trying to tell Chicagoans
about their bishop that
day? Obviously, the editors were preoccupied
with the many negative
assessments of the bishops’ work on the
streets rather than with the
significant progress which had occurred
over the past 12 months, as well
as the evident determination of the bishops
to do the right thing
vis-à-vis all parties concerned.
Even our own Catholic Sentinel presented
this front-page headline last week, “U.S.
bishops gather in St. Louis,
discuss church woes.” Hyperbole lives.
Those who prepared the agenda for the meeting
may have made a mistake by
scheduling three of our five sessions
to take place in executive session.
This is highly unusual, and I myself was
surprised. One of those sessions
was spent with members of the National
Review Board and our Child
Protection Officer, Kathleen McChesney,
to go over many of the questions
various dioceses had raised about our
ongoing study of the nature and
scope of the crisis we have been facing.
Furthermore, we also wanted to be
clear about our responsibilities with
respect to the audit of our dioceses
to measure compliance with the Charter
for the Protection of Children and
Young People, which we approved last year.
These audits will take place in
all the dioceses of our nation in the
coming months. A final report will
be prepared by our Child Protection Officer
and reviewed by the National
Review Board. It will eventually become
a matter of public record.
The other two executive sessions were devoted
to topics of special
interest to the bishops with respect to
our pastoral responsibilities,
namely, 1) the decline in the sacramental
practice of the Catholic faith
among our people as well as the need for
improved catechesis, 2) the role
of the Catholic laity in carrying out
the Church’s mission of evangelizing
contemporary culture, i.e. the ongoing
dialogue between faith and culture,
and 3) the identity and spirituality of
priests and bishops. Papers were
presented, and everyone was given an opportunity
to offer some input. We
hoped that these topics could be further
developed in our spring assembly
next year.
If there was any “shadow” on the horizon
during our gathering in St.
Louis, it was the suspicion among far
too many in the Catholic and secular
press that “some bishops” are resisting
the implementation of the charter.
The truth is that we bishops are actively
implementing the charter. We are
involved in some new and very complex
areas of great concern and
sensitivity. The situation differs from
state to state and from diocese to
diocese. Here in Oregon we are heavily
burdened with considerable
litigation, which has consumed many of
our resources during the past year.
We are doing our best to protect children
today, but we are also making
every effort to respond fairly to yesterday’s
children who suffered abuse
and only now are seeking justice.
You can be proud of the fact that our Catholic
Church is responding at
great expense to the legitimate outrage
of many fellow citizens about
child abuse. When the answers to the present
survey are in, we shall know
just how bad the problem has been for
us, but we remain similarly curious
about how bad the problem is in the family,
in schools, in youth
organizations, in youth athletics and
in other venues. This is not simply
a church problem. It is a societal problem,
and everyone must work to
determine its scope and cure.
Thank you for the cooperation you continue
to give in our own archdiocesan
efforts to protect children, to bring
healing to victims and, at the same
time, to be faithful to our evangelizing
mission.